The class of materials known as superabsorbents have been used for converting liquid medical wastes into a gelled or solidified form for disposal. A granular superabsorbent is added to the medical waste, which may be an inadvertent spill or a containerized waste, such as blood or body fluids.
Superabsorbents are polymers which are characterized by their capacity to imbibe water. As the water is absorbed, the superabsorbent swells with a great increase in volume and forms a gel-like material. This class of superabsorbents has been defined as polymers capable of at least a tenfold absorption of aqueous fluid. Two well known kinds of such polymers are the polyacrylates, such as sodium or potassium polyacrylate, and starch-based superabsorbents that comprise starch acrylonitrile graft polymers.
For disinfecting and gelling medical wastes, antimicrobial agents have been used in combination with the superabsorbents. However, a number of practical problems have been encountered in the use of such absorbent/disinfectant mixtures. It is desired to gel the liquid waste while at the same time effectively disinfecting the gelled body throughout its mass. Heretofore, these combined objectives have not been adequately achieved. The efforts or prior inventors are illustrated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,748,069, 4,749,600, 4,816,307, and 4,900,500, and published European application 0440962A2.
When a mixture of a disinfectant powder and a granular absorbent is added to a containerized liquid waste it settles to the bottom before the gellation takes place. The superabsorbent granules then swell and distribute upwardly until the entire liquid is converted to gel form. However, the disinfectant tends to stay in the bottom portion of the container and is not effectively distributed throughout its upper portions. The resulting gelled body, consequently, has an uneven distribution of the disinfectant.